Turkey’s Fatih drill ship started drilling its third exploration well in the Sakarya Gas Field in the Black Sea region, the Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Fatih Dönmez, said on Wednesday via Twitter.
The ship will carry out its exploration for natural gas for two and a half months at a depth of 5,000 meters below sea level at the is Karasu-1 well, Dönmez confirmed.
Turkey currently has two seismic research ships, Oruç Reis and Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa, and three drill ships, Fatih, Kanuni and Yavuz operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, with a fourth drill ship scheduled for operation in the summer months.
To date, drilling has yielded 540 billion cubic meters of output from the Black Sea.
Natural gas flow from the Sakarya Gas Field is expected to reach the natural gas processing facility to be established in the Black Sea coastal town of Filyos in 2023.